Cherry Blossom Boy
by Blu Rose
Summary: A short story about a pink-haired boy named after cherry blossoms and his life as he tries to overcome the frailty associated with his namesake. (Includes boy!Sakura)
1. Part I

**The Naruto series ended **_**months**_** ago. I'm not bothering to read the new manga Kishimoto's making that's based on the ending because the Naruto community's backlash towards the ending…scared me away from it. But I had this lying on my computer for a **_**long**_** time—since April **_**last year**_**. It was originally posted on here as the first chapter of an intended short multi-chapter series…but a harsh review made me take it down—and by review, I mean a flame that said it was stupid to call a boy Sakura called my attempt to make a friendship between boy!Sakura and Naruto yaoi. Why am I writing this? I don't even know. Why am I **_**posting**_**? I **_**really**_** don't know. I guess I saw all the work I did and didn't want it to go to waste…**

**If you're going to read this, I hope you keep an open mind about boys named "Sakura". (Because, seriously, people in Naruto are named after weirder things than "cherry blossom".)**

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose does not own the Naruto series or any of its characters._

_Summary: A series of short stories about a pink-haired boy named after cherry blossoms and his life as he tries to overcome the frailty associated with his namesake. (Includes boy!Sakura, one-sided SakuIno, and Team 7 brotherliness(?))_

**X-X-X**

_1: Name_

"Why'd you have to give me a _girl's_ name?" The little pink-haired boy asked his parents one night at the dinner table. He never really cared much for why he had his name until some kids from the neighborhood pointed out how _girly_ it was.

His mother, Mebuki, and father, Kizashi, exchanged glances. Mebuki was the first to ask, "What's wrong with being named _'Sakura'_? You were named for your grandfather, you know."

"That's right! Your grandpa Sakuraji was a great ninja and a greater man. We were hoping for you to grow up to be the same," Kizashi explained, sounding proud of his late father.

Sakura could only frown. _'I dunno what's worse: having a girl's name or being named after a __**dead**__ guy.'_ "But it's _still_ a girl's name! Do you know how many boys are named after girls?"

"You're _not_ named after a girl! You're named for your grandfather, who was named for what cherry blossoms represent!" Mebuki replied sternly.

Her son arched an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"Life. People take the time to appreciate cherry blossoms because their time in bloom is short and their beauty is frail and fleeting. Life should be appreciated in the same way."

Her words should have been meaningful. But for little Haruno Sakura, all he heard was how his name meant something weak and short-lived. What cherry blossoms represented was _not_ what he wanted to be.

**X-X-X**

_2: Hanakotoba_

Sakura remembered entering the ninja academy with dreams of training to become a great ninja—one who would be strong and survive the dangers of the profession until he was old enough to retire. On the day he met _her_, he became even more assured that strength was what he wanted. He remembered finding her being picked on by bigger kids—students a year above them who liked to bully their juniors. A smart person would have run off to tell the teacher what was happening. Instead, he approached them with the intention of saving her.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

They _did_ leave her alone, as he wanted. And _he_ became their target instead. Compared to the teasing and light pushing they'd done to the little blonde girl, his own bullying was more aggressive. Punches and kicks were delivered, and one kid even sat on his back and forced his face into the dirt.

"What's the matter, Pinky? Not so tough now, huh?!"

"Hey, look! He's crying!"

At that point, the older kids had begun laughing at him. Sakura couldn't think of a time he'd wanted to crawl off and hide as badly as he did then. The embarrassment continued until the teacher arrived to break it up. Despite constantly saying that he was okay, he was still hauled off to the nurse's office, where he spent the rest of the day until his father came to take him home for a tongue lashing from his mother.

The next day, he hid himself away from most of the kids at recess, not willing to face any of his fellow students after what had happened that. Or _worse_, those older bullies. But he was found by that little girl, the one he saved, in a sense.

"There you are! Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?!" The girl exclaimed with a huff, her hands on her hips and her bright blue eyes sternly looking down at him. Now that she wasn't being bullied, she was quite intimidating. She bent over and began to poke his bandaged cheek. "Geez, they really did a number on you, huh? That was pretty dumb: challenging a bunch of guys who've already had basic taijutsu training when _we're_ still reading about history and junk!"

Sakura gulped and looked down at his knees. "I-I…I just…wanted to help you…"

The blonde girl blinked and smiled. "I know. You were really brave! Dumb, but brave. I'm Yamanaka Ino. What's your name?"

Ino? As in _'pig'_? And here he thought his parents had bad taste in names. What people named their daughter after _pigs_? "I'm…Haruno Sakura."

"Mm? Sakura?" He prepared himself for the teasing and the accusations of _'but isn't that girl's name?'_ that he'd gotten used to long ago. "It suits you." What? Because they were fragile and weak, just like him? "In Hanakotoba, cherry blossoms refer to kindness and gentleness. It fits a nice guy like you!"

"You…don't think it's weird? Or funny?"

Ino blinked. "No. I mean, my name's pretty weird, too, but it's family tradition to have _'Ino'_ in your name, so I'm proud of it!" She frowned. "What? Are people picking on you because of your name?"

"Um—"

"Just lemme known when someone teases you about your name, or your hair, or anything else, and I'll give them my 16-Hit Combo! Okay?"

Sakura blinked, then smiled. "Um… Okay. A-and I'll beat up anyone who picks on you!" He didn't want to just be protected by a girl. After the embarrassment he suffered yesterday, he wanted to become stronger. Not just to prove something to the world and himself, but also to keep Ino safe and sound.

**X-X-X**

_3: Envy_

His friendship with Ino was one of the bright sides of Sakura's early academy years. With her pushing, he found the guts to stand up for himself as well as for her and the determination to prove wrong those who saw him as a weakling and a nerd. But then, one day, she _changed_—and not in the good way. Because she discovered _boys_. More precisely, she—and just about every other girl in their class—discovered Uchiha Sasuke, because she didn't stare at any boy the way she would at Sasuke. She never looked at _him_ that way. And quite frankly, it annoyed him.

"If you like him so much, why don't you go ask to eat lunch with him?" Sakura said one day while he should've been studying. Instead, he'd been staring at Ino staring at Sasuke while he was eating lunch by miserable self.

Ino's eyes brightened and she started to smile. "Of course! Why didn't I think about doing that before? It's so simple!" Sakura watched as she made herself presentable before she ran off and left him alone. The pink-haired boy regretted saying that, because it only made her walk over to the Uchiha. She quickly came back, though, looking dejected. "He…told me to get lost."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. " Ino started to smile a bit more confidently. "I'll just try again! I'll keep trying until Sasuke-kun warms up to me!" In response to her statement, Sakura could only frown and glare in Sasuke's direction. If she focused so much on Sasuke, would she have any time left over for him?

**X-X-X**

_4\. Break Up_

Ino's infatuation with Sasuke led to even more changes for her. Ninja training was still important, but not as important as hair and makeup and clothes. She said it was part of being a kunoichi—that she had to look attractive as well as be skilled at ninjutsu, but Sakura knew that there was more to it than that. His father had told him that all girls grew up to be like that, becoming concerned with looks and whatnot, but he didn't like it one bit.

Ino's infatuation with Sasuke also led to changes for Sakura. It spurred him to train and study even harder, to the point where bandages and aches became common for him. It also made him want to be more competitive with the Uchiha, like Inuzuka and Uzumaki tended to be. He was better at classwork, but Sasuke shone in the physical activities. That was the sort of thing that made the girls—Ino included—swoon. Unfortunately, he was always painfully average when it came to those things.

"Geez, will you knock it off? Keep this up and you'll look like a mummy!" Ino teased him as she inspected Sakura's newest assortment of bandages and cuts and bruises.

"We can't all be perfect like your precious Sasuke," Sakura muttered as he glared out of the corner of his eye. He never liked talking about the guy or being reminded of him, but it seemed like if it wasn't Ino, it was some other girl or their teacher making a stink about him.

Ino sucked her teeth audibly. "Is that it? You're trying to be better than Sasuke-kun? You'd never be able to in a million years."

Sakura's eyes widened. Did she really just say…? "You think that little of me? You think I'm that poor of a ninja?!"

"That wasn't what I said! I meant that compared to Sasuke-kun, you aren't—"

"Sasuke-kun this and Sasuke-kun that! You really hold that guy in high regard, considering he's got the personality of a frozen fish!"

Ino huffed. "Oh, I see how it is! You're just jealous of Sasuke-kun's talent!"

The pink-haired boy swore he could feel a vein rise up on his forehead. "Oh, yeah! Well…if you like him so much, why don't you go and be friends with _him_, you…you _pig_?!"

"Pig?! Why you…billboard-browed, pink-haired wimp! Why would I wanna be friends with a jerk like you?!"

Sakura said nothing more. He just stomped away, feeling angry at Ino, and Sasuke, and himself.

**X-X-X**

_5\. Friends_

After Ino stopped being his friend, Sakura never really grew close to anyone else. Sure, he could be amicable with any classmates who spoke to him nicely enough, but he never attempted to be friends with anyone else, nor did anyone try to be friends with him. He focused on training his body while also studying over the years, never really caring about it much. At least, not until he finally graduated from the academy and became a genin and noticed almost every other kid had friends they were happily chatting with.

So it was pretty uncanny when he wound up with teammates who also didn't have friends, though they weren't exactly people he wanted to be around. They were Uchiha Sasuke—the #1 student in their class, and Uzumaki Naruto—the knuckle-headed prankster who somehow managed to graduate despite being dead last in terms of grades. To Sakura, Sasuke was stuck up because of all the attention and recognition he got, and Naruto was an annoyingly loud brat of a prankster.

At first, they didn't get along with each other. Naruto and Sakura didn't like Sasuke because of his cold personality. Sasuke didn't like Naruto and Sakura because he considered them weak. Sakura didn't like Naruto because he thought the blonde didn't deserve to be a ninja with how abysmal he was in school. Naruto didn't like Sakura because…

Actually, Naruto never really expressed any true hatred towards Sakura, he imagines. In fact, there were times when he asked the pink-haired boy if he wanted to hang out at Ichiraku's his favorite ramen stand, but Sakura always turned him down. At some point, when the animosity he had towards the blonde gradually vanished, he actually…started to _like_ him. Because when he wasn't pulling pranks and acting like a dumbass, Naruto was good company.

The same could go for Sasuke, sort of. Even if he didn't express it with friendly gestures, the Uchiha gradually warmed up to Sakura and Naruto to the point where he could regard them as teammates. And while Sakura still felt compelled to excel and surpass Sasuke, he also felt a growing respect for the Uchiha and his skills as a shinobi.

Sakura wondered if maybe the way Naruto and Sasuke saw _him_ changed over the course of their time as teammates. He wondered if they regarded him as a friend, because the pink-haired genin was honestly starting to think that way about them.

_6\. Potential_

Sakura's teachers always told him he had talent and potential. First in the academy, and now as a genin, it made him feel accomplished. It made him feel as if his training had gotten him further than he would've if he went at it with ordinary fervor. Like becoming an excellent ninja was well within his grasp.

But compared to Sasuke, he feels talentless. This was the skill of someone whose talent practically oozed from their bloodline for generations. When he sees the raven-haired boy's skills in battle, he feels as if he will never catch up. At least he has potential, right?

But compared to Naruto, he feels as if he has no potential at all as a ninja. How did the blonde boy who received the lowest score in the class and failed the graduation exam of making some simple clones become so strong? It was as if the blonde had zoomed past Sakura on the scale of power and was on the way to joining Sasuke at new heights the pink-haired boy couldn't even fathom.

If Sakura had talent and potential, why did it feel as if he couldn't catch up to either of his teammates no matter what he tried?

_7\. Brothers_

Naruto and Sasuke were like the brothers Sakura never asked for, nor wanted. Naruto was like the annoying brother who would pull pranks on you just for a laugh, or try to get you involved in some form of mischief-making. Sakura remembers the time when he tried to get him to help prank Kakashi-sensei for being late on the first day of their team meeting, or that day when he managed to get Sakura _and_ Sasuke to help try and unmask their teacher. Sasuke, on the other hand, was the brother who was annoyed _by you_, and constantly shoving you off when you tried to be all familial. Whenever Naruto and Sakura asked if he wanted to hang out, the Uchiha's response was that he had to train and how the two of them should be doing the same.

But, like real brothers—_good_ ones, anyway, they would be there when you really needed them. Sakura knew that if he was in trouble, he could count on that knucklehead and that jerk to help him out. Okay, maybe Naruto would be around more for emotional support than Sasuke, but at least the Uchiha cared enough to save him from getting killed out in the field.

Sakura never wanted brothers, but if it was anything like being friends with Naruto and Sasuke, he could at least _tolerate_ having them, he thinks.

**X-X-X**

_8\. Useless_

How could he consider himself their teammate when he was nowhere near their level? How could he consider himself their friend when he didn't even know their pasts? How could he have ever thought he could be an asset to his team—to his _friends_ when he was so weak, so _useless_?

It all became apparent at the Chunin Exams. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to carry Sakura through the second half. He hadn't noticed until they were both knocked unconscious after a frightening encounter and the pink-haired boy was left to defend them himself. That was when _they_ came—those three Oto ninja. They didn't even care about getting the scroll. It was all about getting to Sasuke.

He really tried to protect them himself, _really_. The pink-haired boy used all his skills to keep them back. He bled internally and externally, and became bruised in various places. He endured the pain, the insult towards his weakness, the teasing about his hair. All so he could protect his friends…

And Sakura couldn't even do that. Ino and her team appeared to help him. Sasuke woke up and, with a smirk, dislocated one of the Oto-nins arms from their sockets. Naruto woke up and, with concern, asked what the hell happened to the pink-haired boy's face. On the outside, he was proud about his accomplishment—short-lived as it was. On the inside, he couldn't help but think that he had done nothing yet again.

**X-X-X**

_9\. Broken_

One night, Sasuke had left Konoha. There was no letter, no signs of a kidnapping, so the only assumption had been that he ran off. That would make him a nukenin—a missing ninja, one who would have to be chased down and _killed_ in order to keep Konoha's secrets. Naruto didn't want that to happen. Neither did Sakura. While his thoughts about the Uchiha were not the nicest in the beginning, during their time spent as a team, he came to…love? No, _respect_ the Uchiha. It'd take a while and a change of heart before Sasuke would become someone Sakura could love. It'd also take him _being_ there…

Luckily, the Godaime Hokage Tsunade was kind enough to send a five-man team after Sasuke and the people who were said to be traveling with him. Unfortunately for Sakura, he wasn't deemed worthy of being chosen. He didn't have any special skills to make himself useful for this particular mission. Useless once again…when his teammate needed him…?

Of course, Naruto tried to cheer him up. The blonde swore to retrieve Sasuke and bring him back home so they could _both_ beat some sense into him. But Sakura couldn't control himself. He refused to sit on the sidelines. There had to have been _something_ he could do to help… So the pink-haired boy found himself sneaking out of the village, hoping to catch up with the rescue team and Sasuke.

Instead, what he found was heart-wrenching. The sight of Naruto, bleeding from a wound in his shoulder that was large enough to shove your hand into. A wound that could've been made by Sasuke's Chidori. It made Sakura think about that day on the roof of the hospital when things first started to fall apart between their Team.

When Kakashi found his two students, he found Sakura attempting pitifully to stop the bleeding while Sasuke's abandoned headband rested next to him, splattered with droplets of Naruto's blood. He didn't need to hear any words. The mere picture before him showed how broken Team 7 had become.

**X-X-X**

_10\. Blossom_

"Mom…do you think I'm weak?"

Mebuki stared at her son. This had to have been the first time he'd spoken since everything that happened due to that Uchiha boy's defection from the village. She'd like to say she doesn't understand why, but she does. It takes a lot of trying to not grow to like the teammates you're paired up with, and for all the complaining Sakura had done, his reaction showed his mother just how much he regretted…_everything_, really. "Of course I don't think you're weak! You're a talented young man just brimming with potential!"

"Everyone says that, but…I couldn't do anything. Even if they'd taken me with them…I couldn't have done anything… Maybe…I'm not cut out to be a ninja." Maybe he _was_ like his namesake: a frail and weak thing whose life was short and fleeting. Someone like that becoming a ninja was a joke. Mebuki's reaction was to slap Sakura hard in the face. "OW! What the hell, you crazy woman?! I'm looking for your sympathy and you _hit me_?!"

"I don't have any sympathy for quitters! When the going gets tough, pull up your pants and get _tougher_!"

"That's not gonna do any good! I _thought_ I got tougher, but instead I realized that I'm still weak! I wasn't strong enough to help either of my friends!" The pink-haired boy snapped.

Mebuki was about to open her mouth to say more when there came a knock at the door. "You just wait a second," she grumbled before she went to answer it. "Hello? Oh, it's…you."

"Um, hello, Haruno-san. Can I talk to Sakura? Like, _now_?" That voice was Naruto. Mebuki looked over her shoulder at Sakura, who was sitting at the table. The pink-haired boy got up and went over to the door. Once there, he saw that the blonde boy was fully dressed in his ninja gear and carrying a bag on his back. "Hey, Sakura! I came over to say goodbye."

"Good…bye? What are you talking about? Are you going on a mission?"

"Nah, I'm gonna go away with Ero Sennin so he can train me!" _Ero Sennin_? Wasn't that what he always called Jiraiya-sama? "I don't really know how long I'll be gone, but… I promise that when I get back, I'll _definitely_ be stronger! Strong enough to bring Sasuke back!"

Sakura stared in awe. "You…still wanna bring him back? Even after what he's done?"

"Of course! Don't you want him back, too? I mean…he _is_ our friend… This revenge stuff is what's making him act like a jerk! But I'll beat some sense back into him for the both of us! As soon as possible!"

"…Don't."

The blonde boy flinched. "What? Don't tell me…that you've given up on him?"

"No, I meant don't go hogging Sasuke all to yourself!" Sakura snapped, glaring at Naruto. "_I_ wanna beat him up for everything he's done, too! Defecting from the village, endangering the lives of our friends, nearly killing _you_…! He'll be lucky if I don't leave him within an inch of his life! So…don't think I'll be letting you do all the work! When you get back, I'll be strong enough to stand right by your side when we drag him back home!"

Naruto stared in surprise for a few seconds before he began to smile. "Heh-heh. That sounds good!" The two shook hands. "It's a promise then: we'll bring Sasuke back together."

"Yeah!" Sakura stood in the doorway and waved goodbye to Naruto. When he could no longer see his bright orange clothing, the pink-haired boy stared down at the ground in thought. "…Mom. I'm going out. I don't know when I'll be back."

"You're not gonna run away _again_, are you?" Mebuki asked, looking suspicious.

"No, I'm…going to see if I can find a teacher who'll help me get stronger." He looked back at his mother, smirking. "I refuse to be a fragile cherry blossom. I'm gonna become stronger!"

His mother smirked right back. "Good! I didn't raise you to be a quitter…"

Minutes later, Sakura found himself approaching the Godaime Hokage herself, begging to be taught by her. If Sasuke and Naruto were going to learn under Sannin, he'd have to as well in order to become a powerful ninja. Oddly enough, she accepted him as her student, promising harsh training that would scar him for life, and Sakura welcomed that.

He would blossom into a person the total opposite of a cherry blossom. He'd make sure of that…


	2. Part II

**Surprise, surprise! I have no idea why I suddenly wanted to add onto this story. No, wait. I know. I wanted to do a story while male!Sakura being Sarada's dad alongside of Sasuke—it's not yaoi, it's just weird, sitcom-inspired stuff. But I wanted to do a Part II continuation before I did a Part III sequel, so…here it is! It doesn't feel as good as I wanted it to be, but it's hard to be Sakura-centric in Part II for me.**

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Naruto series or its characters. Only this fic._

_Summary: Two years had passed and Sakura had developed into a young man. But did he even change during the time?_

**X-X-X**

_#1: Results_

For several years, Sakura had been training under the Sannin and Godaime Hokage, Tsunade. Everyone was proud of him for gaining an apprenticeship under her, although Sakura didn't share their excitement at first. Becoming a medic wasn't really something Sakura had in mind, but Tsunade refused to take on a student who didn't desire it. But he'd taken to the role of a healer like a fish took to water thanks to his fine chakra control, and he found some strange happiness in knowing that he could help people in ways beyond fighting.

But he could do more than mend. Sakura could also break. With his training in medical ninjutsu, he learned how to channel chakra to obtain the same iconic and monstrous strength as his master. It was the sort of strength he often longed for as a kid, but at the same time, he'd gotten so used to it that he would often grant himself boosts of strength for inopportune moments. Like expressing his anger.

"You PERVERT!" Sakura shouted seconds before his fist met Naruto's chin and sent him flying up into the air. He eventually fell back to earth, face first, behind of the pink-haired chunin. Sakura whirled around, picked up the blonde and put him into a headlock. "I can't _believe_ I convinced myself that you were gonna come back as some cool guy! But you're still just a perverted kid!"

"S-Sakura…! You…got really strong…!" Naruto pointed out in a daze.

"Because unlike _you_, I've been taking my training _seriously_!"

Just as he lifted up Naruto with ease and prepared to power bomb him, he heard Jiraiya sigh, "Well, what do you know? A male Tsunade…"

"SHANNAROOOO!" People could feel the tremors created as Sakura slammed Naruto down into the road.

"GYAAAGH! I yield! I _yield_, damn it!"

**X-X-X**

_#2: Value_

The reason these days why Sakura so doggedly pursued strength and power was to be of use. He still remembered how it felt when he was left behind by Naruto, Shikamaru and the others. Hell, he remembered how worthless he felt compared to Naruto and Sasuke long before their team fell to pieces. What good was a ninja who was of no use?

No better than a wimpy little cherry blossom that seemed to die as soon as it bloomed, _that's_ what.

These days, though, Sakura had value on the teams he was sent with. He was the healer, first and foremost. It was his job to keep everyone alive so they could live to see another day. He was the one who stood in the back and resisted the urge to jump into the fray, ready to throw punches and crack skulls like a certain blonde jinchuriki, unless it was absolutely necessary to fight back, because those were the rules of being a medical ninja.

But he tells himself that one day, there will come a time when he will be able to break those rules. He thinks that it will be the day when he completes his Yin seal. He _knows_ it will be when he proves he is on the same level as Naruto and Sasuke, rather than someone who is beneath them. Until then, Sakura was content to bide his time and wait for the opportunity to arise so he could pounce on it, just like on a mission.

**X-X-X**

_#3: Team 7_

Due to Kakashi getting injured on their mission to rescue Gaara, he had to be replaced. Yamato Tenzou would be his substitute, and he was certainly had a more serious—and intimidating, in the words of Naruto—air than the Copy Ninja. And due to Sasuke…well…not being there, he _also_ had to be replaced. _His_ replacement was probably even more difficult to bear than Sasuke used to be—a guy named Sai who not only took up the time to badmouth Sasuke, but also label Sakura with the nickname _'Pinky'_. Both Yamato and Sai were fully capable ninja and perfectly fine people—well, Sai was a jerk like Sasuke whose faker smile annoyed Sakura. But he didn't like the thought of replacing two members of the original Team 7.

Especially when their first mission together would be related to finding the location of Orochimaru, and in turn Sasuke.

When he imagined confronting Sasuke again, Sakura thought it would be him, Naruto and Kakashi teaming up to beat the ever-loving crap out of the Uchiha before convincing him that they were there to save him. Not a pair of strangers who might not have been as concerned with bringing the Uchiha back alive.

Or maybe he, like Naruto, was desperate to hopelessly cling to memories of their past. Because realistically, _this_ was Team 7. At least for now.

"Do either of you even have penises?"

"_You_ won't have one in a second!"

Though Sakura was certain to happily welcome Sasuke back with open arms if it meant getting rid of Sai.

**X-X-X**

_#4: An Unhappy Reunion_

Sakura hadn't been expecting their reclamation of Sasuke to go smoothly. Sharingan users, he learned, could be annoying to deal with. And Sasuke surely wouldn't come quietly. In fact, he damn near destroyed Orochimaru's hideout after encountering Sai. But he wasn't quite expecting a team of four—which included a jonin wielding Mokuton, a jinchuriki, and a chunin who utilized the monstrous strength of his teacher—to be unable to take down a single guy.

The loss hurt significantly less than when Sasuke started to speak. "I let you live on a whim," was what he told Naruto, and he knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the bloody state he'd left their blonde teammate years ago in the Valley of the End. He was dismissing the idea Sakura had that maybe if he let Naruto live, it meant some part of Sasuke still cared about his ties to Konoha—about his _friends_.

And it upset Sakura to hear that he intended to sever it by killing them all. The blood rushed to his head. Common sense left him and he forgot he was the medic here. He just wanted to smash Sasuke's face in for dismissing them so easily, to beat him to the edge of death, but let him live not because of a whim, but because _he still cared about the bastard_.

But he never got the chance to do that, because Orochimaru and Kabuto whisked Sasuke before he could even lay a finger on him. And like he did all those years ago, he felt as if his results over the years paled in comparison to whatever the hell Sasuke had done.

**X-X-X**

_#5 Sempai &amp; Kohai_

"It was ridiculous… He was far stronger than I guessed he would've been. Faster, too. I think Orochimaru gave him drugs to boost his performance. Maybe did alterations to his body. Too bad his stupid _face_ stayed the same. Bastard deserves the ugliest scar-covered face ever…" Sakura's speech devolved into a series of grumbles as he focused on the book in front of him, but the name _'Sasuke'_ could still be made out.

"Ugh! How long are you gonna keep moping?!" Ino shrieked seconds before slapping a palm against Sakura's forehead, making him cry out in pain.

"What the hell is with women in this village?! I come for emotional support and you hit me in the forehead!" Sakura snapped as he held a hand over the newly made bruise on his forehead.

Ino put her hands on her hips as she bent over the table the pink-haired teen had been sitting at. "You're the one who constantly calls himself my superior! You oughta be made of tougher stuff than that!" Ino's statement had made Sakura wince worse than her attack. She then held a fist up in the air as determination burned in her eyes. "Next time you see Sasuke, you'll land a 1-hit-KO on 'em! I won't accept anything less from you!"

Yes, shortly after Sakura himself had become Tsunade's apprentice, the Yamanaka clan's heiress had begun training as a medical ninja as well. _She_ made it sound as if Sakura himself had forced her to in order to make up for their tie during the chunin exams. _He_ hoped that maybe it meant she wanted to become close again. And they certainly were close these days despite the occasional barbs they threw at each other. Some people liked to insinuate that there was something more between—something that Ino vehemently denied and Sakura managed to avoid talking about by stomping with enough force to crack the ground. But he couldn't deny that Ino had become a person he could confide in, despite her loud nature.

"That's easier said than done! And if you acknowledge that I'm your superior, you could treat me with more respect, you pig!"

Ino narrowed her eyes. "Like I'm gonna do that for anyone who insults me like that! Besides, I know it'll only grant your perverted desires!"

"Like I'm gonna be arouse by someone like you," Sakura muttered as he resumed reading.

"…_Sa-ku-ra-sem-pai_~!_"_ At the sound of Ino's sensual voice enunciating in his ear, Sakura's face reddened and he dropped the book he'd been holding, eyes large and blank. The next thing he heard was the blonde kunoichi laugh and proclaim, "There's not a man out there that can resist my charms!"

"I wasn't _charmed_! I was stunned by how close you were, you—you pig!" Sakura snapped.

"Hey, do you think I'd be able to woo that Sai guy into asking me out on a date? He reminds me of Sasuke a lot, but he actually seems approachable!"

Sakura didn't say how rude it was to flirt with him, dash his hopes, and then talk about her prospects of dating another guy. He just sighed and went back to reading the book, hoping he could come up with a means of hindering Sasuke's new physical prowess.

**X-X-X**

_#6: Hopeless and Faithless_

Sakura and Naruto had once made a promise together to bring Sasuke back to Konoha. They would get stronger, find their teammate, and beat him black and blue before dragging him back home, where he belonged. But it seemed as if their reunion at Orochimaru's hideout was a sign of the decline that Sasuke was going to go through afterwards.

When he killed Orochimaru, rather than returning to the village, he gathered a team of ninja to seek his brother Itachi, which was at least excusable because Orochimaru and Itachi were both too dangerous to be left walking around. But then he joined the Akatsuki, infiltrated Rai no Kuni, and attacked and captured the jinchuriki of Kumogakure. His actions actually led to the five Kage of the Great Shinobi Countries calling a summit to discuss how to deal with the Akatsuki. All because of Sasuke. All because of the teammate he and Naruto struggled to bring back home.

Sakura didn't need Shikamaru and the rest of the Konoha 12 telling him how Sasuke couldn't get away with committing these acts. He didn't need them to say that they ought to start treating him like the typical missing ninja and just _kill him_ before he makes things worse. And he wanted to ask Naruto if he felt the same way before breaking the news about their decision…

But the bruised and swollen state the pink-haired teen found his friend in made him hold back the most important question on his mind in exchange for another, "What the hell happened to you?!"

"Some ninja from Kumogakure were here," said Sai as he stood by and watched Sakura heal Naruto. "He refused to give up information about Sasuke that could help them, so they attacked him. But he refused to fight back."

"You shouldn't have done that," Sakura muttered.

"I couldn't do that. If I let them kill Sasuke, it would just continue the cycle of hatred," Naruto spoke. "I have to go to the summit and tell them to leave Sasuke to me."

"I-I'm sorry, it sounded like you think you can convince _five of the most powerful ninja leaders_ to do what you want! You're kidding, right? I know you're kidding!"

Naruto pulled himself away from the pink-haired boy and stood up. "Sakura. Do you remember what we promised? No matter what, we would bring Sasuke back to the village. Right now, we're his best chance of survival." Sakura opened his mouth to say how Sasuke _had_ no chance of survival after all the shit he'd done, but Naruto continued, "You stay behind and keep looking over Granny, okay? We really need her support behind us right now."

And then he left. And Sakura released his pent up anger by punching the road, creating a decent-sized crater. "Idiot…! What makes you think she'd agree with you after what he's done…?"

"Sakura." Sai's voice drew Sakura's attention to him. "Do you think that Sasuke can possibly be forgiven after the things he's done?" The medic refused to answer that. He felt as if Sai knew what he thought anyway. "I understand now how much you and Naruto care about him and his wellbeing…but when the person you care for begins to do the things that Sasuke has done, personal feelings and history should be put aside before more innocent people get hurt."

"God damn it…I _know_." And the thought that came up in Sakura's mind made him feel so low…

**X-X-X**

_#7: Breaking Promises_

"What…did you just say, Sakura?"

Sakura took a shuddering breath, breathing out cold air. All eyes were on him as he stared at Naruto with a serious expression. "I said I'm giving up on Sasuke coming home. I don't know why we bothered to continue chasing him even _before_ this mess happened. What good is saving him gonna do now that he's become a fugitive criminal?" Naruto still continued to stare at him in disbelief, so he continued, "The Sasuke we knew is someone from the past. The Sasuke of the present isn't someone we should be calling friend, let alone someone who we should be protecting. So let's both stop chasing the past and let the Kage decide what ought to be done about him for a change."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Why would you come all this way to say something like that?"

"Because I care more about _your_ life than Sasuke's! You're a target of the Akatsuki and Sasuke's one of them now! Going after him would just be putting yourself in danger! That's why I'm here to take you back to the village where you can be safe, so just forget about the promise we made together!"

The blonde and the pink-haired boy stared at each other as if their respective groups didn't even exist. "This doesn't have anything to do with our promise anymore. I know why Sasuke's joined Akatsuki and done what he has…and I want to save him."

What happened next felt like an instant reaction. Sakura swung his fist, it met Naruto's face, and he was sent tumbling back across the snowy ground. The medic ignored everyone's shocked reactions and Kiba and Yamato's shared cry of _'What the hell?'_ as he jumped forward. "Then I'm sorry that it's come to this!" He landed with a kick that made the snow rise up into the air, exposing the barren ground beneath it. Naruto had recovered from the blow in time to jump back and avoid the attack. "Because I want to save _you_, you _idiot_!" Before he could charge forward, he felt something snake around his legs and waist that stopped him from moving. Looking down, Sakura could see that it was wood.

"That's enough of that, Sakura." At some point, Kakashi had arrived at the pink-haired boy's side. "This isn't the time to start petty fights."

"Petty?! Sensei, why are you encouraging him?! It's not worth it to care about Sasuke anymore!"

"You say that…but the look in your eyes doesn't match your words." Kakashi's statement made Sakura still. "Even your attacks seemed half-hearted."

"Sakura…" At that point, Naruto had approached him. The bruise on his face wasn't a bad one, so it had already started to heal. "Why are you trying to lie to yourself?"

"…DAMN YOU TWO!" Sakura shouted as he raised a fist in the air. Both his teammate and sensei backed off, fearing they would get attacked, but all Sakura did was punch wood restraining him to free himself. Then he stalked over to Sai, Lee and Kiba, saying, "You're both idiots for clinging onto the hope of saving Sasuke!"

But in a way, Sakura was just as much of an idiot as they were.

**X-X-X**

_#8: Because we're Friends_

He once considered Sasuke like an older brother figure—someone he hated at times, but still wanted to emulate in some areas and be an equal or superior. They cared for each other's safety, and after a while, they acknowledged each other's skills. It may have been simply because they were placed onto the same team, but Sakura felt they passed the minimum requirement to consider each other friends.

And that was why he had decided to head off to kill Sasuke.

It was a decision that he hated himself for coming to so easily, but it felt like a better option than trusting Naruto. Sasuke was like a rabid dog now. He had to be put down before he caused more trouble…and further tarnished the memory that he, Naruto and Kakashi had of him from the past. Yes, Sakura had been trying to convince himself that Sasuke's death would be beneficial for Sasuke, too, before he'd become some maniac.

He certainly looked like he was on the road to becoming one when Sakura found him after abandoning Sai and the others. Sasuke's clothes were a mess, it appeared as if one of his eyes were bleeding, and his hand crackled with electricity as he made to seemingly attack a woman. He only stopped because Sakura had called out to him and asked to join him, claiming to want to join him in his goal to destroy Konoha. He expected Sasuke to try and kill him outright, but instead gave him a simple order.

"If you really want to join me, kill _her_ right now." He had wanted Sakura to kill the woman he had been intending to kill himself. "She's a member of the team I put together, but she's useless now. Since you're a medical ninja, you could replace her easily."

Sasuke didn't seem to think much of the poor woman. Heaven knows if she had done any criminal things or had a record free of mars. Sakura just couldn't help but feel sympathetic towards her. But his sympathy had made him hesitate, and he would've had Sasuke's Chidori plunged into his chest if it wasn't for Kakashi coming to save him.

But instead of running off and carrying Sasuke's former teammate to save her like his teacher said to, Sakura stuck around and waited for the opportune moment to strike him down. His mind had told him to stab him in a particularly fatal place, but instead, his kunai was plunged into Sasuke's shoulder, and the Uchiha took that opportunity to grab him by the throat and pull out his kunai to use against him. Sasuke had a deranged look in his eyes as he prepared to stab Sakura. The medic channeled chakra into his foot and kicked the Uchiha with enough force to send him flying back, but not enough to even break his bones. Perhaps his heart just wasn't into the thought of killing his former friend, no matter how much he convinced himself it was for the greater good.

Then Naruto came along and confirmed how he was a better friend to Sasuke, proclaiming that he was either going to stop Sasuke without killing him or die trying. It certainly made Sakura feel like a low-down person.

"You're a better person than I am," Sakura had told Naruto on their way back to Konoha. Sasuke had slipped away from them once again thanks to the help of Uchiha Madara. "You still wanna save Sasuke even if he sees you as an enemy…"

"I'm not a better person than you," Naruto began, "Because you still care about what happens to Sasuke, too. That's what all of that from before was about…right?" He started to smile. "I mean, if you were _really_ serious about killing him like you wanted to do, we'd have been able to bring him back a lot more easily!"

The pink-haired boy sighed. "Don't joke about that. You're only making me feel like a failure. It's always been you and Sasuke in the end…"

"Sakura… Do you believe we can be a team again?"

"…Yeah. Just promise to give Sasuke a punch for me when you fight for the last time." But Sakura couldn't deny how disappointed he was at that thought. That once again, he would be forced to be a watcher while his teammates—his _friends_ fought in some perilous fight. It really did make him feel like just a bit player.

**X-X-X**

_#9: Stand Together_

At last, his dream had come true. Here he was, fighting back to back with both Sasuke and Naruto. It was upsetting to know that this happened due to a world-ending catastrophe brought on by years of shinobi hatred, but it couldn't be helped. His Yin seal had reached fruition and he could _really_ let loose and show his true power.

"Do you both see it now? I'm a student of one of the Sannin and a member of Team 7, the same as you! Maybe _I_ should aim for the title of Hokage myself, seeing as how my master's one!" Sakura exclaimed as he held up a fist.

"Huh?! Sakura, not you, too! Next even Sai'll ask if he could become the Hokage!" Naruto sounded like a whining child—an attitude that didn't match the ethereal glowing yellow aura he had.

"You say that after you were nearly killed." And that was Sasuke, sounding as unimpressed by Sakura's accomplishment of punching out a massive creature that dwarfed him.

Sakura couldn't help but smirk as he stood back to back with Naruto and Sasuke. "Well then, this time you guys can be _my_ backup and stare at _my_ back! Unless you think you can keep up!" This was war. He shouldn't have been so happy, but he _was_. Because he could finally say that he was his friends' equal. Because they were finally together again.

Later on, they would once again be placed into a category where Sakura wouldn't be able to follow them due to history and prophecies and fate. And even sooner after that, his friends would once again keep him out of the way to settle issues between themselves. But for now, standing together, Sakura could fool himself into believing that they were a team again and that things might be okay when the dust settled.

_#10: Sorry_

Sakura was _pissed_. He had woken up this way. It wasn't just because he was still sore and tired after succeeding against Kaguya–although the fight against the mother of chakra certainly was exhausting, having exhausted a good amount of the chakra Sakura had channeled into his Yin seal. No, it was because of Sasuke. He had a feeling that things wouldn't be so easy—that Sasuke wouldn't peaceably come back to Konoha and forget his feelings of anger and hatred. But why the hell did the bastard have to go and knock him out?

To make matters worse, when he woke up, he learned from Kakashi that Naruto and Sasuke had left to have that duel they had been hyping up for a long time. Meaning they had left him behind _again_. So Sakura would like to think that he wasn't making mountains out of molehills when he ran to find the two idiots so he could give them the pain of a lifetime.

Those feelings didn't change when he found both of his friends lying on the ground in the Valley of the End all bruised, bloody and each missing part of an arm. "_You two_…! You two are the _worst_! Do you know that?" If they had more energy to move, Naruto and Sasuke might have shown fear of their pink-haired teammate. "The both of you deserve even more of a thrashing than you've given each other! And I suppose you expect me to heal you and make you all better? I'll give you what you need!"

The pink-haired young man bent over and began to forcefully poke the Uzumaki and the Uchiha. Naruto was the most verbal with his complaints of "Stop it, Sakura! Ow! It hurts! Ouch! Damn it, I'm in pain here!" Sasuke just took it all while grunting in pain. Kakashi stood nearby, his smile hidden beneath his mask as he ignored Naruto's pleas to help them.

Once Sakura's anger had subsided, he got to work healing up the two. He worked on Naruto first just to make Sasuke suffer. "Consider that your punishment for knocking me out, _dick_."

"Sakura... I'm sorry," Sasuke spoke simply.

"For what?"

"…For hurting you. All of you."

"Can I believe that?"

"Yes."

Sakura and Sasuke stared at each other for a few seconds before the medic flicked his finger against the Uchiha's forehead. "If you do anything like that again, I don't care what Naruto or anybody else says. I'll break every bone in your body and literally _drag_ you back to the village."

"Hn. You haven't changed. You're still annoying."

Sakura snorted before poking another sore area of Sasuke's body. The Uchiha flinched, which made him smirk. "_You're_ still annoying, too. Both of you are."

"Hey, I thought I was forgiven?" Naruto asked.

"It'll take a lot more than apologies for _either_ of you to get back into my good graces!"

"So annoying…"

As their childish bickering continued, Sakura looked up at the sky. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and found himself genuinely smiling. At last, their team was on the path to becoming whole once more.


	3. Part III

**Well…here it is. A third and final part based around Part III of the Naruto series—specifically the "Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring" storyline. It was difficult to complete for obvious reasons and the question of "How to fit Sarada into a storyline where her mother is now a man and her father is still a man?" It feels mediocre to me, but hopefully you'll enjoy this true conclusion to "Cherry Blossom Boy" even a slight bit.**

_Disclaimer: Blu Rose doesn't own the Naruto series. She only owns this fic._

**X-X-X**

_#1: Someone to Love_

It had been years since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. Sakura could say that he finally reached the point that he had been dreaming of as a child, more or less. He was a powerful ninja, famous for his medical skill and monstrous strength. He'd survived a war and numerous missions that would've killed weaker ninja or forced them to reconsider their path in life. And he went even further than his young self had desired: he sought to improve to state of the medical system in Konoha and other ninja villages, especially in regards to the health of children. But there was still something missing from Sakura's life…

"Your love life is _dead_. You wanna know how dead? Its corpse has shriveled away into _dust_ and had itself reincarnated, only to die at the drop of a pin!"

Sakura said nothing as he leafed through papers on various patients he had to see before the end of the day. He didn't even bother to give Ino a look of annoyance for bringing up this topic of _berating_—because he sure as hell wasn't concerned enough to make this a conversation. He could feel the intensity of her unsatisfied glare as she continued.

"So I seriously don't understand why you keep refusing to go on second dates with the girls I set you up with. They're all such wonderful people and they all say that things went swimmingly between you on your dates. Seriously, you're about as cold as Sasuke."

Once again, Sakura ignored her. He typed away on his computer, intending to finish the document in time. It wasn't as if he was _cold_ with those women. He treated them nicely and, as Ino said, they were nice women. But there was simply no spark of interest—not even basic lust. Honestly, Sakura hadn't felt anything in the way of romance for a woman since his feelings for Ino when they were teens.

Too bad he realized what those feelings were only after her engagement to Sai.

"You need to get with the program, Sakura! Everyone we knew from the academy is either dating someone or engaged or married… Do you seriously want to wind up single forever like Tsunade-sama or that one Mizukage?"

"Well, people _do_ like to call me the male Tsunade…" Sakura spoke for the first time since Ino's ranting had begun.

Ino frowned and put her hands on her hips. "I am _serious_ here, Billboard Brow! Everybody needs somebody to love! I won't have you spend your days married to your work like some loser!"

Sakura frowned and finally looked up at Ino with a glare. "Hey, I'm contributing greatly to the village, thank you very much!"

"How about instead of thinking about what's good for _others_, you be a little bit selfish and think about what's good for _you_?" The blonde woman punctuated her statement with a poke to his forehead, right on its diamond-shaped seal, before stomping off in a mood. Suddenly, Sakura didn't want to continue his work and spent a good portion of his worktime brooding.

**X-X-X**

_#2: Baby_

Karin wasn't exactly a close acquaintance of Sakura's. He knew a few things about her, though—information gleaned from others like her Uzumaki heritage, her abilities to sense chakra and heal others through by letting them bite her body, and her ties with Sasuke as one of his comrades. Honestly, Sakura could never forget her as the injured woman whose life Sasuke had wanted to throw away at some point because she'd been deemed useless. He hadn't seen her since the war and she disappeared somewhere with Orochimaru.

So imagine his surprise when Karin approached him on the streets of Konoha after years of not seeing each other with a baby in hand. "She's Sasuke's daughter," Karin explained.

"Huh?! Even _Sasuke_ is…?!" Sakura immediately shut up. Naruto he could understand, but _Sasuke_ had a more of a sex life than him? Even the few times they'd met before, he seemed like he had all the libido of a rock. "Ah. So you and Sasuke… Congratulations!" He said with a smile.

Karin gave a pained expression for a moment before her face returned to a neutral look. "She isn't mine. She's… Can we speak somewhere more private than this?"

So Sakura invited Karin to his home, where she told him everything. That little girl Karin was carrying around was apparently the result of an experiment by some madman or another—someone who had been working alongside of Orochimaru. In some genetic sense, she was Sasuke's daughter—or at the very least, she was related to him. Heaven knows _why_ she had been created, but the moment Orochimaru found out, the creator ran off and left his experiment behind.

"Orochimaru thought it was best that she be raised by Sasuke considering her heritage. That's why it's important that I find him."

"…Well. That's…" Sakura honestly didn't know how to respond to that. Sasuke? A parent? Naruto was believable, but…would Sasuke accept a child that technically wasn't even sired by him? It would be a stretch for him to call her _'daughter'_ considering how she had been created. "I honestly don't know where Sasuke is. You'd have better luck checking in with the Rokudaime. I'm sure he'll come back eventually, so…how about I look after her until then? As a favor to Sasuke."

Karin's shocked expression was expected. Sakura didn't really know why he made the offer or why Karin readily accepted it—"Until Sasuke comes back!"—but he wanted this little girl. Maybe it was his recent experience tending to the minds and bodies of young children talking, but Sakura wanted to give this little girl a chance at a normal life and a happy family—even if it wasn't going to last forever.

**X-X-X**

_#3: A Name is Important_

For a place as big as Konoha, word got around quickly that Sakura had begun to care for a child. A lot of people made assumptions about how he got her: a tawdry relationship, adoption, _creating her _with some sort of medical kinjutsu… But really, only a handful of people in the village knew the truth about the baby's origins, and Sakura liked it that way. The last thing the poor baby needed was to be hounded for being an Uchiha clan descendant and the result of an experiment. Besides, how would it look to his parents, who unsubtly hinted at their desire for at least one grandchild before their deaths, if they learned Sakura technically wasn't a parent?

But there was a more important issue at hand when it came to the child. She didn't have a name. Karin and the rest of Orochimaru's lot didn't think up of one to give her. A part of Sakura could understand. Naming a child was important. It was a job for the child's parent or parent figure, but Sasuke's communications had always been one-sided with no chance of reply from Konoha. And, of course, Sasuke knew nothing about his _'daughter'_. When the parent was absent and unreachable, well…who else could name her but the next best thing: her caretaker?

So when Sakura finally grew tired of waiting and debating with himself, he gave the child a name. Her name was Sarada, Sasuke's opinion be damned. She certainly looked smart enough to be called that, and she seemed to like the name. Or maybe Sakura fooled himself into thinking that, because the baby girl seemed used to him calling her _'sweetheart'_. Either way, a part of him felt like naming the child was the wrong thing to do. Giving her a name felt like proof that they were family now. That they had a bond. He never thought that someday, he might have to give her up.

**X-X-X**

_#4: A Mother Figure_

Karin made it an odd habit to occasionally drop in on Sakura and Sarada every once in a while. It was usually every two months, but sometimes, she came around sooner than that. The redheaded woman always said she came because she wanted to make sure Sasuke's child was being taken care of, and so a good chunk of her visits were spent watching Sakura as he took care of Sarada and making comments about the environment she was being raised in. It felt like Karin had taken up the role of a social worker…or maybe something more amicably closer. Either way, Sakura grew to like her company.

"You know, with all your interest in Sarada, I'm very surprised," Sakura spoke as he began cleaning Sarada of the food that didn't quite make it into her mouth. "I would think that you would want to raise her yourself."

"What makes you think that?" Karin asked with a frown, narrowing her eyes and folding her arms across her chest.

"Well, I've heard that shark-toothed friend of yours say that you carry a torch for Sasuke, so I assumed…"

The redhead's eye twitched. "Huh?! You mean that idiot Suigetsu? You can't trust the words of morons like him!"

"But still, you're interested in Sarada's wellbeing. If that's the case, why not raise her yourself?" The anger faded from Karin's face as Sakura continued, "I know Orochimaru said that it's probably best for Sasuke to raise her, but I'm not exactly him. You could've just taken her back with you and raised her like your own."

"Because I'm not a mother figure." Karin looked away from Sakura, now looking uncomfortable.

"I wouldn't say that. You'd probably be a lot like _my_ mother. She's scary on the surface, but she can be quite loving…when she's not picking on me and criticizing me. Isn't that right, Sarada? Isn't Granny scary?" Sakura cooed to the baby girl before ticking her chin. Sarada's response was to give Sasuke a toothless smile.

"Not everyone's like you, you know."

Sakura looked over his shoulder at Karin, confusion written on his face. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"You're very…nurturing. It's what makes you a good medic as well as a good parent."

Sakura snorted, but didn't reply. Whenever he remembered that his situation with Sarada was only temporary, it made him feel more like a babysitter than a parent. "Then may I ask why you're so interested in Sarada? If it's because of her relation to Sasuke, I won't judge."

Once again, Karin began to look upset. "What the hell is with you always jumping to Sasuke?! Why can't I just be worried about Sarada-chan's wellbeing?!"

Karin started muttering things under her breath while Sakura stared in amusement. After a while, he looked up at a clock on the wall and realized what time it was. "Oh, wow! I gotta get to the hospital for a meeting! Do you think you could look after Sarada while I'm gone?"

The redheaded woman looked shocked. "Excuse me?! I've got more important things to do than babysit for you!"

"It really won't take long! One or two hours at most…and you're the one who always says that being in Konoha gives you a break from Orochimaru and the rest of his gang. Surely it won't be _so_ bad…"

"…Fine," Karin grunted as she folded her arms across her chest. "But I'm doing this for Sarada-chan, not _you_! And if something happens while you're gone—which it _won't_—I'll blame it on your poor insight as a parent!"

"See that? That's the sort of thing my mother says!" Sakura said with a smile as he patted Karin on the shoulder. Then he disappeared to get ready for work. When he happened to glance back into the kitchen area, he found Karin carrying Sarada with a look in her eyes that mixed loving and sadness.

**X-X-X**

_#5: Unrequited_

A year passed and once again, rumors about Sakura began to fly among the populace of Konoha. This time, they were focused on him and Karin, whom he would often be seen in the company of—along with Sarada. Some people said they were dating and others said that Karin was Sarada's birthmother.

Once, Ino confronted him about these rumors out of worry for him. "You wanna marry a girl like _that_? I'm sure you think she's cute, but…I've heard rumors that she's pretty crazy. Like, needs _mental help_ crazy. I mean, if _I_ got stabbed by a guy I liked, even if I could grow to trust him again, I wouldn't fall in love with him again." But Sakura pointed out that he and Naruto were just as crazy back then, trying to save Sasuke despite his actions.

But he couldn't deny that he had felt some sort of attraction to Karin for a while. The keywords are _'for a while'_, because it didn't last for very long. It started once Karin had truly begun to warm up to Sakura and the excuse of coming to Konoha for Sarada's sake became less spoken. Then, for reasons that Sakura told himself were merely acts of mere kindness, he started inviting Karin to join him and Sarada for home-cooked meals: dinners, lunches, and the rare breakfasts. Then they started doing such things outside of the house, which naturally caught people's attention. That was when the rumors had started to fly, and when Karin told him as such about it after one visit—she'd been approached by Ino who unsubtly threatened the redhead about harming her should she break Sakura's heart—he surprised her by saying that he didn't really mind those rumors, but that he _was_ sorry for Ino's protectiveness.

"To be honest, I think I could do far worse than a woman like you," Sakura remembered saying with a smile.

Karin blushed and narrowed her eyes, adjusting her glasses as she huffed, "Are— Are you _flirting _with me, Haruno?! With a child in the room?!"

"Maybe," the medic said with a nonchalant shrug before he returned to feeding Sarada.

"_S-seriously_?!"

"Why is it so surprising? You're a pretty woman. I'm sure you've been flirted with before."

"Stop that!" Karin growled, pointing a finger at him. "I don't know how the women in Konoha react to your _smooth talking_, but I'm not some simple woman who falls in love easily, okay?! Of all the nerve…!"

But despite her attitude about Sakura not minding the rumors, she made no attempt to force him to start announcing that they weren't a couple and her reactions had less loud denials and more sighs and head shaking. Then, after months of getting used to the hassle of being called Sakura's girlfriend, _it_ happened. While they were alone together in Sakura's home, after Sarada had been put to sleep and the two of them had been drinking in celebration of a touch-and-go surgery at the hospital, words that they probably would've have in normal circumstances were shaken loose with the help of alcohol.

"Sasuke was always an idiot. He never noticed when good girls noticed him…poured their hearts out to him. Or maybe he thought that their attraction to him was shallow. You were with him for a while… Were your feelings genuine affection?"

Karin was quiet for a moment before she downed the remaining wine in her glass. "We met when we were genin, during the Chunin Exam… He saved my life and disappeared…and I fell in love with him," she confessed. "And for years, I wished I could see him again…learn about him…get closer to him…" Her eyes had glazed over as she went over it all: meeting Sasuke again after he'd allied himself with Orochimaru, joining him on his quest for vengeance, almost getting killed by him… "At that point, I thought I wanted to give him up. Wanted to kill 'em, mess up that pretty face for what he did…but the moment he apologized, I turned to mush and went back to being a woman in love. It's stupid, isn't it? I wasn't even sure if he'd really changed his character then… And even after that, he never really looked at me the way he wanted to or smiled at me the way I wanted him to…"

"Sasuke was always an idiot," Sakura repeated. "I'm sure most men would kill to have a woman as forgiving as you. And pretty…and smart…"

"Men like _you_, Haruno?" Before Sakura could answer, Karin took off her glasses and stared at him. Her cheeks were tinged with a red hue, and Sakura couldn't tell if it was from the wine or something else. "When I was dying, you actually bothered to heal me. You hesitated to kill me. _Me_, a wanted criminal by association with Sasuke. That was nice… Why couldn't _you_ have been the boy I saw that day…? I bet _you_ would've stuck around to talk to me…" She brought her face closer to his, her expression strangely affectionate. "Then maybe _this_ would've been my life instead of being stuck in that goddamn cave with those three idiots…waiting for Sasuke."

"…It _could_ be your life, if you want," Sakura whispered before planting his lips on Karin's and proceeding to make out. The last thing he remembered was the sensation of her tongue wrestling with his own before he blacked out…

And Sakura woke up the next day in bed next to Karin, naked and headache-ridden. He should've been made with himself, or worried about the consequences of this accidental affair, but he wasn't. Maybe he was still a bit drunk from the night before, but he had been happy about what had happened—about his feelings being returned for a change.

But the happy feeling ended the moment Karin woke up and started spouting off how much she regretted this. "This was a mistake," the redhead had said as she began dressing quickly, caring little for how she looked. "This wasn't supposed to happen. This isn't how I'm supposed to feel…!"

Sakura watched her in confusion from under the covers. "What do you mean? Last night, you—"

"Last night was an alcohol-fueled bender!" Karin snapped as she glared at Sakura. But then her eyes suddenly softened and she seemed to regret her words. "The problem's not with you, Sakura," she spoke softly, using his first name for once. "It's _me_. I'm so messed up. I wanna move on, but I can't. I just _can't_.

Sakura's face hardened as he stared at the woman searching for her glasses, trying to avoid any more eye contact with him. "You're talking about Sasuke…" He couldn't control the anger bubbling up inside of him as he continued, "I don't understand what the _hell_ is so hard about moving on from him! Even if he apologized for treating you like a thing he could throw away when you were of no use to him, even if he's changed his ways, you know that he'd never love you the way you want him to love you—the way I'm _willing _to love you if you'd just _let go_ of him!"

Karin finally found her glasses and slipped them on before looking back at Sakura with a neutral expression. "I told you. I can't." She turned her back to him as she continued, "I don't think it's a good idea for me to come around here anymore."

"What about Sarada?"

"You've proven you can take care of her."

"What about _me_? Us? What we might be able to have together?"

Karin looked as if she were actually considering it, but then she shook her head. "…I'm sorry." Without another word, she left, and Sakura would never hear from her again.

Sakura blocked the redheaded woman out of his mind until years later, on the day he took Sarada to buy some proper glasses—it seemed that she had a bit of a vision problem. She wound up choosing a pair of glasses that reminded Sakura of the ones Karin had been wearing last he saw her. "Does it look good, Papa?" His little girl asked as she held onto the frames, prepared to take the glasses off the moment she heard a word against them.

After a minute lost in thoughts and memories, Sakura smiled, "They make you look beautiful, honey."

**X-X-X**

_#6: One Day_

One day, for the first time in years, Sasuke returned to Konoha. And naturally, Sakura was nervous. He hadn't been able to keep in contact with the Uchiha—no one had—so he didn't know a thing about the 4-year old girl who shared his genes. Sakura had never once thought about what would happen when he learned of Sarada's existence. What if he didn't want her? Rejected her because the only thing that connected them was biology?

Or worse…what if he accepted her as his daughter and wanted to take Sarada away from him? After all these years, Sakura couldn't think of Sarada as anything but his daughter. And how would she react if she learned the person she'd been calling _'Papa'_ since she was a baby was practically no more than a babysitter? Sakura already felt his heart break at the thought of her face having an expression of hurt and betrayal.

So he wasn't prepared when Sasuke showed up on his doorstep. Sakura had to force a smile on his face as he greeted his childhood teammate, "Sasuke! It's nice to see you again after all this time! Uh, would you like to come in?" He didn't even give the man a chance to respond and ushered Sasuke in, leading him over to the couch before rushing off to prepare some tea for his guest. It gave Sakura time to think, to register what was probably going to happen, and to brace himself for heartbreak. Once that was all done, he went back to Sasuke with tea in hand, prepared to ease his way into the subject of Sarada. "Well, look at you. You've aged pretty gracefully, haven't you?"

But Sasuke just dove right in after taking a single sip of tea. "I came to see her. The girl, I mean."

"Her name is Sarada. I'm sure you may not care for the name, but…it's not like you were available for questioning and she couldn't go without a name forever." Sakura hadn't noticed when he began glaring at Sasuke, but he stopped in favor of sipping more green tea.

"Why would you need my permission? She isn't _my_ child."

"Of course she's your child! Or at the least, she's your family! An Uchiha like you!"

"That may be, but I'm in no position to be taking care of a child," Sasuke explained as he put down his cup of tea while Sakura clenched his own. "I spend all of my time away from the village, travelling. I wouldn't be able to raise her properly."

"Then don't travel and stay in the village!"

"We both know that what I do is valuable to Konoha."

"And you don't think _she_ might be valuable?!" Sakura snapped, cracking the cup in a bit of rage. "Ah, shit! Not one of the good cups…!"

Sasuke stared at Sakura while the latter checked the damage he'd caused. "Why do _you_ care, anyway? From what I've been told, you've taken up being her father."

Sakura put down the cup and began to stare down sadly into its contents. "I never intended to. I was just going to take care of her until you got back… If anything, it's all your fault for deciding that your time was best spent wandering the continent instead of being here to take care of her."

They both fell silent. Sakura didn't know what Sasuke was thinking about, but _he_ was thinking about how stupid he felt. He had wanted this: for Sasuke to not want to accept responsibility for Sarada and allow Sakura to keep living with her as his daughter. He didn't know why he was so upset over Sasuke practically refusing to change his ways for Sarada's sake. Sakura opened his mouth to say something, but they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening and a young voice calling out, "Papa! I'm home!" Then Sarada ran into the room, only to halt when she noticed Sasuke. They studied each other for a few seconds before Sarada remembered her manners and said, "Good afternoon, sir."

"Good afternoon," Sasuke repeated, still staring at Sarada.

"Um, Sarada!" Sakura spoke up, hoping to distract the young girl from the fact that Sasuke was looking at her for too long. "This is Uchiha Sasuke-san." That seemed to make Sarada look his way. "And you should know that he's—"

"A childhood friend of your father's," Sasuke interrupted, getting him an odd look from Sakura in the process. "What's your name?"

"S…Sarada," Sarada responded shyly.

"That's a pretty name." His statement made Sarada blush from embarrassment.

"Sarada, why don't you go up to your room?" Sakura asked. "Sasuke-san and I have to talk about some things."

Sarada huffed and puffed up her cheeks cutely. "Okay…"

As she marched upstairs against her will, Sakura kept an eye on her. The moment he heard her door close, he felt it was safe to glare at Sasuke and hiss, "What was _that_?! I was all prepared to tell her—!"

Sasuke stood up abruptly. "Thank you for the tea, but I have to be leaving soon."

Sakura got up and grabbed Sasuke's sleeve, his closed fist brushing up against the stump of his arm. "Are you kidding me?! You just drop in without warning and then you leave without saying a _thing_ to Sarada?!"

"Sarada doesn't need to think that I'm her father when _you're_ the one who's been raising her." Sasuke looked back at Sakura. "It isn't as if I _don't_ want to take care of her, you know. I simply _can't_." The answer had caused Sakura to loosen his grip on his sleeve and allow Sasuke to walk towards the door. "She looks well. Make sure she stays that way." When he was halfway out, he looked at Sakura once more. "I'll come to see her when I can."

"…Okay," was all Sakura could say before Sasuke closed the door behind him. Then Sakura collapsed onto the couch and sighed before burying his face into his hands. So, was that it? No, that couldn't be it. Sasuke showed he had at least some interest in Sarada's life. Was that a sign that maybe he'd decide to come and take her one day? One day…who knew? Either way, it was a thought that filled Sakura with dread and a bit of happiness to know that Sasuke at least cared.

**X-X-X**

_#7: Questions and Lies_

Sakura was used to Sarada being inquisitive, especially about herself. She'd often asked questions about her mother and mother's family, and Sakura would be forced to lie for the sake of keeping his daughter content and blissfully unaware of the truth that he wasn't her biological father and that her real father was unsure if he even wanted to be a parent to her. But he dreaded the thought that she possibly inherited the Sharingan. He couldn't very well lie away how she inherited the kekkei genkai of a clan who was murdered while he was still a child and its only survivor was male.

But the day came in a way he wasn't expecting.

"Tell me the truth: am I adopted?" Sarada asked one day while Sakura was busy hanging laundry outside.

The pink-haired man flinched a bit, but didn't give his daughter the chance of seeing his surprise. "What on earth are you talking about? You should be preparing for your exam, not asking silly questions," he said as he continued hanging laundry.

"I'm _serious_."

"If this is about some kid teasing you—"

"I went to check the clan records and didn't find my name anywhere under the Haruno clan. I found it under the Uchiha clan." Sakura froze and refused to look back at Sarada. She continued, "I would've asked if Mom was an Uchiha, but I don't know if you'd even tell the truth or not!"

"You're my daughter! That _is_ the truth!"

"Then tell me why I'm listed as an Uchiha!"

Sakura took a deep breath and turned around to look at Sarada. She was upset, no doubt about it. "…Your mother was an Uchiha, but she did some bad things. A lot of the Uchiha clan did…bad things. That's why there's nothing left of her and…why I don't like to talk about her much. Okay?" Sakura forced himself to fake a smile. "So can we just put that behind us?"

Sarada didn't seem satisfied. She frowned and narrowed her eyes in a manner that reminded him of Sasuke before walking away. Sakura had a feeling that this situation wouldn't have been let go easily. Now he'd have to wait for the inevitable argument that would result from this and put up with the unnatural coldness that Sarada would likely express towards him.

**X-X-X**

_#8: Bad Parenting_

Upon realizing that Sarada had run away from Konoha, Sakura began to consider himself a bad parent. Sure, she'd left under the pretense of delivering lunch to Naruto and assisting her friend Chou-Chou with some personal mission, but Sakura knew the truth behind it all. She'd left to see Sasuke—the only other living Uchiha who was going to meet up with Naruto, according to Shikamaru. Never mind how Sasuke would react to meeting her again after all this time, or how Sarada would react if Sasuke actually bothered to admit how they were related.

As far as Sakura was concerned, all of this could have been avoided if he had been honest with Sarada in the first place. He'd lied to his darling daughter about her family history, made up a dead mother for her, tried to ignore the traits she inherited from Sasuke and the truths that she had dug up… After all of the lies, would she forgive him and still call him _'Papa'_? Or would she deem Sakura unworthy of her love and abandon him for Sasuke? He probably deserved that if it happened.

He couldn't stand the thought of something awful happening to Sarada because he was too cowardly to tell the truth to her. So Sakura left the village as well, hoping to catch up to the girls before they met up with Sasuke. If the truth had to come out, he wanted it to be from his own mouth. At least then, Sakura could feel a bit better about being honest.

But just as he came across the group—Sarada, Chou-Chou, Naruto _and_ Sasuke—he was taken away from them by a man called Shin Uchiha—or more precisely, one of his clones. To a man like him, his own flesh and blood clones were nothing more than organ donors and tools to take advantage of. To Shin Uchiha, children were no more than the result of a natural impulse to ensure one's genetics survive. Compared to such a man, Sakura felt like a saint, because he never saw Sarada as just a means to continue his family's name or an Uchiha destined to make her forefathers proud. She was simply his daughter, whom he wanted to love and protect even if she no longer loved him the same way after today…

**X-X-X**

_#9: Papa_

Who cared if they stopped an Uchiha-obsessed madman and culled an uprising of poor, confused clones with no sense of self by giving them a home and a chance of a happy life? Well, okay, Sakura cared. But he was a bit too worried about the damage that had been done to his family of two. Sarada had figured out that she wasn't his daughter and had an interest in Sasuke—her _biological _father who could teach her what it meant to be an Uchiha. Perhaps it was for the best. Sakura figured it would've had to happen eventually, just not like this.

Why didn't he just tell her the truth from the beginning? Or at least _part_ of it—the part about her being adopted? Of course he knew why he did it in the first place. It sounded like Sasuke didn't want her, and no child should feel unwanted by their parent. If she chose to stop seeing him as her father, he'd understand. He'd hate it, but he'd understand.

He'd been sitting on the couch at home, stewing in his self-hatred and sadness when he heard the door close. Sarada soon came into his view, her expression unreadable. Sasuke had taken Sarada off somewhere _'to talk'_ about something—probably her paternity and her heritage and something else associated with familial bonding. Sakura stared at his daughter for a few seconds before saying, "So…what did Sasuke want to talk about with you…if you don't mind my asking?" _Did_ she mind now? Had his identity as simply her guardian made him unworthy of her feelings and thoughts?

"We talked about me. Our relationship. You." Sarada gave her answers almost mechanically. "Sasu— I mean…Father said he still had to leave the village again. But he promised to come back. He even said he'd be willing to teach me some jutsu when he got back. He…" Sarada bowed her head a little, smiling. "He wants us to be closer."

"That's good! That's what you've always wanted, right? I'm happy for you, Sarada." He really was. He was happy that Sasuke had an interest in being a parent to her. But it also hurt Sakura's heart to know that Sasuke and Sarada had a mutual desire to become more like a father and daughter. It was only a matter of time until he was pushed out of the Uchiha family picture. "I suppose you'll be stuck with me until he comes back, huh?"

Sarada pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I assumed you'd want to move in with him as soon as possible."

"…Wh-WHAT?! You…want me to move out?!" Sarada shouted. "Is it because I ran away from the village?!"

"Of course not! I just assumed that you would prefer your father's company to mine."

"That's just stupid, Papa." The term of endearment Sarada spoke brought Sakura's attention back onto her. The dark-haired girl frowned. "You're…my father, too. I remembered that when I thought something bad had happened to you. Papa…could you ever forgive—" Sakura practically jumped off the couch to embrace her. "GAH! Too tight, too tight!"

"Of course I forgive you. Do you forgive me for lying all these years?"

"…Mm-hm."

Sakura sniffled. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, but he didn't move to wipe them away. He hugged Sarada closer to him, and he eventually felt her arms being wrapped around his body. He kissed her forehead and smiled. "So, you have two fathers… I hope no one takes that the wrong way," he laughed. He was simply happy that he hadn't lost his daughter after all.


End file.
